Tuft frame for weaving pile fabrics



E. F. HATHAWAY I TUFT FRAME FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS Sept. 25 1923. HAfiQJlSl Filed Jan. 29, 1923 a (I I Y 72% %.& ff

/ Patented Sept. 25, 11923.

EDGAR Ii. HATHAWAY, 0F 'WELLESLEY, MASSAQHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 SHAWMUT ENGINEERING COMPANY, 015 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

MASSACHUSETTS.

A. QORPORATION OF TUFT FRAME FOR WEAVING PILE FABRICS.

Application filed January 29, 1923. Serial No. 615,578.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDGAR F. HATHAWAY, a citizen of the 'United States, and resident of \Vellesley, inthe county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and. useful Improvements in Tuft Frames for W'eaving Pile Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to looms of the type used in weaving Axminster carpets or similar pile fabrics, and is intended to minimize waste f material and economize labor by requiring less frequent renewal of the tuft yarn on the yarn spool.

According to the practice heretofore prevailing, the tuft yarn which forms the material for the pile-forming tufts was temporarily clamped to the barrel of the spool by a longitudinal wire or rod, then wrapped or wound around the spool until only enough of the outer ends of the yarn remained to be inserted through the tuft tubes, the clamping wires then being withdrawn endwise. When in use the yarn was unwound intermittently from the spool as required to provide tufts for insertion into the fabric being woven until there remained only one and a half or perhaps two complete turns of the yarn around the spool barrel which wererequired to hold the yarn in place. At this point the spool had to be removed to renew the yarn since there was no longer enough yarn remaining to keep in position on the spool and furnish further tufts for the fabric. These last anchoring turns of the yarn, as well as the stretches of yarn extending from the line where the yarn clears "the spool to the delivery ends of the tuft guides or tubes, sufficient in length t furnish tufts for a substantial number of additional rugs, if utilized, were lost or wasted.

It is the object of the present invention t minimize this waste and to render a given length of yarn available for a greater number of rugs, at the same time rendering u-nnecessary such frequent renewal ofIthe yarn,

and to this end the invention comprises, broadly speaking, the provision of means forming an attaching or retaining connecthe inner yarn ends reach or approach the tuft tubes through which they are guided or fed to the fabric.

This and other features of the invention will be explained in the-following specificationand will be defined in the claims hereto annexed.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated several forms embodying the principles of this invention, in which:

*Fi ure 1 is a front elevation of a detached tuft frame showing the inner ends of the yarn elements suspended adjacent to the tuft guides or tubes after they have completely unwound from the spool.

Figure 2, is a transverse section illustrat- 111 the same arrangement.

4 igure 3 is a similar view showing the unwinding in the reverse direction to that illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an end elevation illustrating a modified arrangement of the yarn-holding 'll'lBiLIlS.

Figure 5 is a detailed front elevation on an enlarged scale showing the yarn-engaging means illustrated in Figure 4,

Figure 6 is a transverse section of a modified form of yarn, spool and attaching means.

Figure is a similar view on a larger scale showing another modification to that shown in Figure 5.

In the practice of this invention, according to the forms illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the spool barrel 1, is provided with the usual heads or flanges 2, and journals 3 which are rotatably supported in bearings in the brackets 4:", which are secured to and project from the longitudinal carrier bar 4,

on one side of which are secured, in any suitable manner, the guides or, in this case, tuft tubes 5, through which the outer ends of the yarn on the spool are threaded and by which the yarn elements are spaced and guided to present short lengths or tufts intermittently to the fabric to be woven.

Along one side'of the spool barrel 1 is formed a groove or recess, as shown at 1, for the purpose of receiving and loosely retaining the yarn-holding portion of the attachment or device that forms an expansible connection between the inner ends of the yarn and the spool.

This expansible connection may be of any suitable form but, as shown, it comprises a flexible apron 6, whose anchored edge is secured to the spool in any suitable manner, as by means of a longitudinal row of tacks 7. At its free end the apron or connecting member 6 is provided with a yarn-retaining or engaging device which, as illustrated in Figures, 1 to 3, comprises a longitudinal trough-like member 8 forming the female element of aclamping couple, the inner ends of the yarn t being clamped thereto by means of an inserted clamping rod 9 which pinches the yarn ends into the shallow trough of the member 8.

As similar patterns of yarn on the spool may be unwound in relatively reverse directions, provision is made so that if need be the yarn may unwind properly from the spool when the spool is rotating in one direction or the reverse. Provision is, therefore, made for locating the anchorage of the connecting member to the spool in such a position that the yarn-retaining portion 8, when wound from its anchorage in either direction, will lie inside the recess 1*. This may be accomplished by locating the fastening tacks 7, or other fastening means, so that the line where the apron 6 is free to move out from the spool periphery is approximately opposite the medial line of the bottom of the recess so that the yarn-retaining device will properly lie in said recess with its apron in contact with the spool periphery whether carried around the spool barrel in one direction or the other, the length of apron being determined to allow the yarnclamping element to lie within said recess. For a similar reason the yarn-engaging element of the expansible connection is made double and reversible; As shown in cross section in Figures 2 and 3, the yarn-engaging element 8 is practically S shaped so as to present an open or clamping side outward whether the apron be wound around the spool in one direction or reversely. Wound in the direction shown in' Figure 2, the open side of the yarn-holding element 8 is that next to the apron, while wound-in the direction indicated in full line in Figure 3 the yarn-engaging element would have its free end exposed outwardly to receive the cooperating clamping rod or member 9.

In the arrangement shown in Figure 6 the spool barrel 1, opposite the recess 1 has an opposite longitudinal recess or groove 1", adapted to receive a number of clamping or wedging pieces-1O between which the anchored end of the apron is pinched, said longitudinal strips 10 being frictionally held in the groove 1".

In Figure 7 another modified form of connection with the spool is shown. In this case a hollow spool 10, which may be of metal, is formed withinterior hollow rib thereto so as to receive the yarn, an for attaching the inner ends of the yarn to incense 10, and the apron 6 is fastened between two longitudinally extending spring bow arms 11 by rivets or the like and are sprung through the narrow entrance to the hollow rib so as to permit their expanding into frictional engagement with the interior of said rib to hold the apron or attaching member detachably anchored to the spool, this same construction being that shown in Figure 4, the spool 10 having also an opposite recess 10 for receiving the yarn-retaining element.

In the case of the form shown in Figures 4 and 5, the yarn-engaging element comprises a helically coile wire spring 12, attached at intervals by loops 12*, or other connections with the lower end of the apron 6. In this case in setting up the spool the yarn ends are carried between adjacent coils or turns of the helical wire 12 by which they are pinched by the contractile force of the spring so as to hold them with suflicient grip for the purpose of suspending the yarn ends therefrom.

Whatever detail of construction may be employed in carrying out the principles of the invention it will be seen that provision is made for an expansible connection between the inner ends of the yarn elements from which the tufts are formed and the yarn-carrying spool so that the yarn is permitted to completely unwind from the. spool nd even travel until its rear ends reach the intake ends of the tuft guides 5 before the yarn ends become unavailable for supplying further tufts to the fabric.

As this saving of the inner ends of the yarn is equal, ordinarily, to more than twice the circumference of /the spool barrel there is utilized enough additional yarn with each setting up of the tube frame to provide tufts for a substantial number of additional rugs, and it will. also be seen that by reason of this additional utilization of the yarn, renewal of the spools at less frequent intervals is required, all of which effects a very substantial saving in material and in labor.

What I claim is:

1. In a tube frame for weaving tufted fabrics, the combination of a rotatable yarn spool, a cooperating series of tuft guiding members, and means forming a connecting extension between the inner yarn-ends and the spool whereby said yarn-ends are permitted to unwind from the spool andstill remain attached thereto, substantially as described.

2. In a tube frame for weaving tufted fabrics, the combination with a yarn supporting spool, a cooperative series of tuftspacing members arranged in juxta osition means the spool, said means forming an effective connection between the inner ends of the yarn and the spool after the yarn ends have left the spool and approach the tuft spacing members, substantially as described.

3. In 'a tube frame for weaving tufted fabrics, the combination of a rotatable yarncarrying spool a cooperating series of yarnguiding tuft tubes, a yarn-attaching member adaptedto wind on and unwind from the spool and thus form an extension of the yarn ends to maintain connection between the yarn ends and the spool after the yarnends have unwound from the spool, substantially as described.

4. In a tuft frame for weaving pile fabrics, the combination of a yarn-carrying spool and a flexible yarn-attaching member adapted to partly surround the spool to which one end is attached and provided with yarn-retaining means at its other end thereby affording an extensible connection between the yarn and the yarn spool and permitting the yarn to unwind without losing connection with the spool, substantially as described.

5. A yarn saving device for a yarn-carry- .ing spool, embracing in its construction a flexible apron adapted to be attached to the yarn spool along one of its edges and having at its opposite edge means for gripping the inner ends of the yarn elements thereby affording an extensible connection between the spool and the yarn elements, substantially as described.

6. A yarn saving device for a yarn-engaging spool, embracing a connecting member adapted to lie lengthwise on the spool and be attached thereto, and a yarn-retaining device for holding the inner ends of the yarn in operative connection with the spool, substantially a described.

7. The combination with a yarn spool having a longitudinal recess in its periphery, of a yarn-attaching means provided at one longitudinal edge with means for anchoring it to the spool and having at its free edge a yarn-holding device by which the yarn ends are extensibly connected with the spool substantially as described.

-8. The combination with a tuft yarn spool, of means for detachably and extensibly attaching the inner yarn ends to the spool thereby permitting the yarn ends to unwind from the spool and still retain operative connection therewith, substantially as described.

9. The combination with a tuft yarn spool provided with a longitudinal recess in its periphery, a yarn-holding device flexibly connected with the spool and arranged to permit the yarn to be wound or unwound in either direction outside of the holding device seated in said recess, substantially as described.

'10. A tuft yarn spool provided on opposite sides of its axis with longitudinal recesses, and a yarn-attaching device detachably anchored in one recess and having a yarn-holding member adapted to lie in the other recess when the yarn is wound on the spool and to swing out of said recess when the yarn is unwound, substantially as described.

11. The combination with a tuft yarn spool and yarn-attaching means anchored thereto at one edge and having a holding device for the inn-er ends of the yarn, said holding device being formed to hold the erly for winding in either direction, substantially as described.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

EDGAR F. HATHAWAY.

receiving and detachably holdingyarn prop- 

